I finally did it - bought The Keats Brothers. It was a gift from a friend of mine.

The author, Denise Gigante, is a wonderful writer. As a professor of English at Stanford University, she clearly knows what's she's doing. Though I have read only a little of her book, I am happy to say that her research and active, sympathetic mind makes for a lively, involved prose. This is no sterile academic book. She immediately draws the reader into her world as she tells the story of the Keats brothers. In fact, as I finished the very first paragraph of the Prologue, I found myself holding back tears and got choked up, due to the intensely beautiful way she captured one particular moment - a moment that summarizes the tragic and beautiful life of John with his brothers. Remarkable writer that possesses a very human, personal, and aesthetic touch with her words. She paints wonderful word pictures and I hope the book continues like this.

There are 40 pages of pictures and drawings in the book. Pictures I have never seen. Her fascination with Keats is clear in the book. I hope I can now find the time to read ( while I am still trying to finish Plumly's book).

"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly. Dry your eyes... and let's go home."

Back from the library with Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings.John Betjeman describes him as the John Clare of the building estates.Bit of a misanthrope apparently ( makes two of us! )Enjoyed what i've read so far.And something very different, George Mackay Brown, The Wreck of the Archangel.Take care.Marwood.

I've been meaning to read The Immortal Dinner by Penelope Hughes-Hallett for a while now and happened to find a copy in my favourite second-hand book shop in Camden, London. Now I've dived in and I'm loving it. Rightly or wrongly, her portrait of Haydon seems more sympathetic than most, although she's not blind to his colossal egotism. I'm enjoying the passages about the charming Charles Lamb, too - a relatively ignored person in Keats's wider circle, but he's a fascinating character with an intriguing biography. He tenderly cared for his sister and led a bachelor life with her after she, in a frenzy, stabbed their mother to death in her early twenties.

Charles and Mary are even buried together in Edmonton Churchyard, which I visited last year.

Their cottage around the corner still stands.

"Why should we be owls, when we can be Eagles?" (Keats to Reynolds, 3 February 1818)

Thanks for the pictures, Cath! Just loved seeing them.One of the best quotes I have ever read about John Keats comes from B.R. Haydon in the book "The Immortal Dinner." Get the book and enjoy it Saturn. You won't ever forget the quote by Haydon.

"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly. Dry your eyes... and let's go home."

Okay, not very good at links me, but this is THE house in which the Immortal Dinner took place. I just happened to be visiting my daughters in Kilburn and we caught the bus to go into central London and imagine my yelps when I saw this! Imagine my daughters' discombobulation! Taken from the top of the swaying bus, hence hardly a good composition.

I imagine the main door would have been round the corner, now buried behind the somewhat tatty shop.The blue plaque also mentions Haydon's fellow tenant, the sculptor Rossi.

I do hope the link works, if not you can probably do a manual link to my page.

Great photos- I bet the house looked different back then and the street- would have been cobbled- not the ugly modern road.Yes, me too Saturn- would like to read it too. At the moment I am reading Lark Rise to Candleford and the Plumly book.

John....you did not live to see-who we are because of what you left,what it is we are in what we make of you.Peter Sanson, 1995.

BrokenLyre wrote:Thanks for the pictures, Cath! Just loved seeing them.One of the best quotes I have ever read about John Keats comes from B.R. Haydon in the book "The Immortal Dinner." Get the book and enjoy it Saturn. You won't ever forget the quote by Haydon.

What was the quote?

John....you did not live to see-who we are because of what you left,what it is we are in what we make of you.Peter Sanson, 1995.